FOCUS ON: Clean Air Act

The Clean Air Act is a major public health success. The law prevents more than 160,000 deaths and 1,700,000 asthma attacks each year. It also is responsible for preventing thousands upon thousands of other adverse health impacts, including emergency room visits, heart disease, chronic bronchitis, lost school days, and infant mortality.

The Clean Air Act is a US law passed in 1970 designed to protect Americans from dangerous air pollution. The law was enacted in 1963, greatly expanded in scope by President Richard Nixon in 1970, and was again significantly amended in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush.

The Clean Air Act regulates emissions of six major air pollutants – ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and lead – levels of which are monitored nationwide. The Clean Air Act also limits the emission of almost 200 hazardous air pollutants, including mercury, benzene, vinyl chloride, cadmium, and asbestos.

Emissions from cars, planes, trains, ships, factories, power plants, and businesses all fall under the purview of the Clean Air Act, which is administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Passenger vehicles are now the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, and gas prices are expected soon to reach their highest level in four years. But instead of shoring up national standards that keep our cars on track to put less pollution…

The Trump administration’s EPA is threatening protections against mercury and air pollution. What you need to know: Coal-fired power plants emit at least 84 separate hazardous air pollutants. The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards are now fully implemented and are reducing exposure to dangerous…

We’re all used to text and email, and often that’s speedy and effective. But sometimes, the sound of a voice makes all the difference. Now is one of those times. Your members of Congress must hear from you about your deep concerns over the Trump EPA’s…

Mercury standards under attack: The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards are a lifesaving, fully implemented, effective pollution prevention program that specifically protects pregnant women and babies from harm. Since 2012, the mercury standards have helped to dramatically lower mercury emissions from coal plants. Moms want…

What Is America’s Clean Power Plan? Climate change is real, and it threatens the health of our children. But right now, there are no limits on the largest single source of human-caused climate pollution – power plants. We think that’s wrong. To address this glaring…

At a certain stage of life, there was almost nothing my little boys loved more than a big, loud, roaring motorized vehicle. Whether it was a tractor-trailer, school bus, garbage truck, city bus, or ambulance, there one of them would be, little hand…

Americans want climate action. in litigation pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The following groups and individuals last week filed legal briefs to support the most important and ambitious plan ever to combat the pollution that is fueling climate disruption:…

This post is written by Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll, Green the Church Co-Founder. It first appeared in Successful Black Parenting (used with permission): Today, being Black in America is dangerous. My wife and I don’t want our children to worry about their survival. We want them to run,...

Trump’s EPA is appalling. It’s retreat from protecting our families from pollution has already launched a process to sabotage and ultimately destroy our Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. These are protections that keep mercury, a terrible poison, from harming our babies’ brains. Under the leadership of Andrew Wheeler,...

This is an interview with Dr. Gredia Huerta Montanez, an environmental health pediatrician in Puerto Rico and a member of the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee: Dr. Huerta Montanez, can you please tell us about the work you do as an environmental...

Climate change threatens the health of Americans and is having major impacts now, according to a recent report from the Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals. The annual report, called the Lancet Countdown, is a collaboration of researchers from 27 leading academic institutions,...

The video below from CNN that asks: How on earth can a coal industry lobbyist be in charge of EPA, charged with protecting our health and safety from air and climate pollution? From CNN’s Drew Griffin: “Andrew Wheeler, the former coal lobbyist who is now acting administrator of...